Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

Dan Hickey or Tri State Painting out of Tilton, NH, looks over a work site repainting and reparing the West Milton Road bridge spanning Interstate 89 in Milton Wednesday morning. / RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS

More

ADVERTISEMENT

SOUTH BURLINGTON — Here’s a road project people are so enthusiastic about they’re practically ready to grab a shovel and help.

This summer, Main Street and Williston Road near the border of Burlington and South Burlington will be redesigned. When it’s done, eastbound traffic on the far right lane will have a straight shot to Interstate 89 on ramps.

As of now, that right lane ends at Staples Plaza. People unfamiliar with the area who are in that right lane then try to veer into the lane to their immediate left, tying up traffic. And people intending to access Interstate 89 must wait through traffic jams among the people running a gauntlet of traffic lights as they move along Williston Road with no intention of turning off onto the Interstate.

“I definitely like it,” said Travis Sabataso, who works at a Maplefields convenience store on Williston Road with a perfect view of that hated right lane that ends prematurely. “It ties up everything. It takes forever to get out of downtown Burlington,” Sabataso said.

The Williston Road project, coming in at about $2 million, is among the more expensive and popular highway construction projects scheduled this year. The warm season rush of construction is just now getting underway.

Already, work has resumed for the season on restoring the Richmond steel truss bridge, in which they split the historic structure lengthwise, added a beam to widen it, then tied it back together to create a wider bridge. Work on that project should finish up this summer.

Also, on Interstate 89 in Milton, traffic in one spot is down to one lane as workers repaint an overpass.

The overpass painting project is just a warmup for an even bigger plan that is sure to slow traffic on Interstate 89 in Milton all summer. The large bridges over the Lamoille River, just north of where they’re painting the overpass, are scheduled to be entirely replaced, likely starting in June.

Statewide overview

Overall, about $324 million will be spent on paving, bridge repair, highway safety, park and ride projects, bike and pedestrian facilities and other projects this summer, according to data from the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

(Page 2 of 3)

That’s about a 1 percent increase over last year. That’s enough to at least tread water in keeping up with road paving and maintenance needs, said Kevin Marshia, assistant project director for the Agency of Transportation.

“We’re making progress, but there are still a lot of needs out there,” he said.

Spending on all categories is roughly the same as last year statewide, according to Transportation Agency data. Big budget items include: $108 million for road paving, $61 million for work on Interstate bridges, $54 million for state highway bridges and $53 million on roadway work.

In general, the federal government covers 80 percent of the costs of fixing state highways, and 90 percent of the expense of repairing Interstate highways, Marshia said.

Specific projects

One of the two biggest and highest profile projects this year is the redesign of Williston Road in South Burlington. Justin Rabideau, South Burlington’s public works director, acknowledged the road has been a thorn in the sides of commuters for years.

Just extending the infamous eastbound right lane past Staples Plaza wouldn’t have worked. “We couldn’t reasonably take that land from Staples without impacting their parking and circulation,” Rabideau said.

The solution came from the University of Vermont and the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center, each of whom agreed to donate a strip of their property fronting Williston Road to the city of South Burlington, Rabideau said.

Workers will shift Williston Road toward the UVM and Sheraton property, freeing up space for that long desired eastbound right lane to the Interstate, Rabideau said.

The project’s cost is about $2 million, all of it federal dollars, Rabideau said. He acknowledged traffic might be even more tied up than usual along Williston Road during construction. However, workers will build the lane closest to the Sheraton first, and work might be done at night on some days to reduce its effect on commuters. The project is slated to begin in late May or early June, finish for the season in November, with landscaping and final details to be completed in spring 2014.

(Page 3 of 3)

Motorist Dylan Hudson, 21, of Burlington, said he looks forward to the project, even if he’s long since resigned himself to the traffic tie-ups on Williston Road. “It’s pretty gnarly, but I’ve gotten used to it,” he said.

The Lamoille Bridge

The Interstate 89 bridges over the Lamoille River were built in 1967, said Todd Sumner, the Vermont Agency of Transportation project manager for the bridge replacement.

There’s rust and fatigue cracking in some of the steel on the bridge. The state could have repaired it, but a cost/benefit analysis indicated it would be better to just replace the spans, Sumner said. Still, the job is pricey, coming in at $23 million. The federal government is covering 90 percent of the cost, and Vermont will pick up the rest of the tab.

Workers will start by building a bridge over the river between the two existing spans. That middle bridge will become part of the new bridge system, Sumner said. The new bridge might also help accommodate some traffic during construction.

There will no doubt be traffic tie-ups at the Lamoille River bridge off and on all season, and probably next, Sumner acknowledged. The project is scheduled to finish up by June 1, 2016.

Road paving projects

Most towns across Vermont take advantage of summer to fix or repave local roads, and that’s certainly true this summer.

In Burlington, parts of 18 streets are scheduled for paving work this summer, according to the city’s public works department. Some of the bigger Burlington paving projects include Intervale Avenue between Spring and Archibald streets, Main Street between Williard Street and South Winooski Avenue and Shore Road between North Avenue and Fern Street.

Colchester plans to repave parts of Blakely Road between the Bayside area and Malletts Bay Avenue. Also, Malletts Bay Avenue itself is to get a new layer of pavement, as is Creek Farm Road, said Colchester Public Works Director Bryan Osborne.

More paving is expected along Vermont 117 near Sand Hill Road in Essex.

Not happening

As is always the case with construction projects, there’s a list of projects that nobody will get to this year. Mostly, that’s because money is not available, or design work isn’t finished, or permits aren’t ready yet.

Among them are an unusual design for the U.S. 7, Interstate 89 interchange at exit 16 called a double diamond crossover, in which lanes and traffic signals are reconfigured to make traffic flow more smoothly. The redesign won’t start until 2015 at the earliest, according to Colchester Public Works.

And the Champlain Parkway in Burlington, the long awaited road intended to bring traffic efficiently through Burlington’s South End to downtown, is still mired in planning disputes and environmental questions.